Greg Norman failed to make history but he won the hearts of golf fans as well as Open champion Padraig Harrington at Royal Birkdale.
The 53-year-old Australian would have become the oldest winner of a golf major if he could have clung on to his two-shot lead going into the final round.
In the end he faltered as he has done so often in his career with a seven-over-par 77 to finish joint third, two shots behind England's Ian Poulter and six behind Harrington.
But the Irishman saluted Norman as the perfect partner.
"I thanked him for his company coming down the 18th. He's a super guy," Harrington said.
"If you ever want to be playing with someone in the last group of an Open Greg is the perfect guy."
"He says 'good shot' when it needs to be said. I said to him coming down the 18th that I was sorry it wasn't his story that was going to be told."
"In this game you have to take your chances when you get them, but it would have been a fantastic story."
"Greg has been a great champion and another win at this time of his career would have been the icing on the cake."
Harrington, whose back-to-back Opens equalled Norman's two Open triumphs in 1986 and 1993, also marvelled at the talent the Australian had demonstrated over four days on a challenging course in the toughest of conditions.
"You'd be happy to drive the ball like him at any stage in your career, let alone at 53 years of age," Harrington said.
"His chipping, his putting, everything about his game is excellent."
"Probably the hardest thing in the world is to defend the lead in any circumstances going into a tough course."
"But a tough course in extreme conditions with one or two things not going for him and all of a sudden it's slipping away. You have to feel for him."
"He bogeyed the first three holes and he could easily have parred them. It really did go against him."
As for Norman he heads off to Royal Troon for the Senior British Open followed by the US Senior Open.
But he does not intend to step up his golf commitments, preferring to concentrate on his varied business interests and enjoy life with his new wife, former Wimbledon champion Chris Evert.
"Even though there's failure at the end of it for me I still put myself in position to really show a lot of people that you can go do something if you really want it," Norman said.
"But it still doesn't fire me up to go out there. I don't plan on any more golf after the next two weeks for a while."